I am glad I don’t live in a country where the penalty for criminal behavior includes having your tax returns released to the public.
I am doubly glad I don’t live in a country where the penalty for criminal behavior includes having your tax returns released to the public before you are convicted and indeed before you are ever charged.
I am triply glad that I don’t live in a country where the penalty for criminal behavior includes having your tax returns released to the public at the whim of your political opponents.
And I am quadruply glad that I don’t live in a country where those political opponents get to invent penalties that are not envisioned by any statute.
I wish many things for Donald Trump, and I am sure he would not want me to get most of my wishes. But it would be an outrage for the Ways and Means Committee of the House to release his returns under the current circumstances, where, it seems to me, the release is clearly intended as a punishment for some very bad acts that very clearly occurred.
On the other hand: I have long argued (see Chapter 15 of The Armchair Economist) that when voters make choices on the basis of promises that are ultimately not kept, they should have legal recourse in the form of a lawsuit against the politician who broke those promises. In 2016, Donald Trump repeatedly promised to release his tax returns as soon as they were not “under audit”. It’s not at all clear to me why this promise would have changed anyone’s vote, but presumably Trump (who has presumably thought about this harder than I have) believed it would sway at least some voters; otherwise why would he have made such a big deal about it?
In my ideal world, there would be a class-action suit against Trump by voters who relied on his 2016 promise to release these returns, and, after a trial, he might be ordered to fill the breach by releasing those returns today. One could argue that the Ways and Means Committee is simply bringing about my desired outcome by other means.
But: First, as I just said, in my ideal world, the order to release the returns would come after a trial. We have not had that trial. And second, I am actually very very glad that I do not live in a world where my personal policy preferences are implemented without first going through some sort of process whereby they become law. Like so many of my best ideas, this one is not yet a law. I’m glad I do live in a country where (by and large) non-laws are not enforced, even when I believe they ought to be laws.
I do not agree that Trump is being punished. Nobody thinks Trump broke any laws or even any promises. Democrats and others are scared that Trump will be re-elected President in 2024, and they will do anything to undermine his campaign. That is why his tax returns are being released.
Roger (#1): Nobody thinks Trump broke any laws or even any promises. That is an absolutely ludicrous thing to say. I hope nobody else will bother responding to it.
“I hope nobody else will bother responding to it.”
Maybe nobody really will respond so we can know for sure.
My understanding is that it was framed as more of an investigative step rather than a penalty. Giving the returns to the public lets them crowdsource the task of looking for criminal activity, and it increases transparency in the event that someone does claim to find criminal activity.
This is unfair, but it happens all the time in regular trials too — someone’s embarrassing secrets come out in court, even if the person hasn’t been convicted of anything, and even if they are ultimately acquitted.
“it happens all the time in regular trials too” – that would be another example of “the process is the punishment”. We can wish for a system that doesn’t pile ancillary penalties on top of whatever punishment due process deems appropriate. Compare with http://gene-callahan.blogspot.com/2017/10/the-disgusting-prison-rape-trope.html
“[t]hat when voters make choices on the basis of promises that are ultimately not kept, they should have legal recourse in the form of a lawsuit against the politician who broke those promises.”
We don’t have to single out Donald Trump, right? For example, Barack Obama promised “if you like your doctor you can keep him” and “everybody will have on average a $2,500 reduction in health insurance premiums”. Not sure this turned out that way, so this is ripe for a lawsuit against Barry.
Or Joe Biden – he promised “to kill the virus”. Is the virus dead? Not sure about that, and so he is ripe for a Landsburg-style lawsuit as well.
But of course, it is Trump taxes that makes waves, not the “killing the virus”.
Given that Trump repeatedly promised to release his tax returns, that tax returns of presidential candidates are now released as a matter of law, and that Trump for some mysterious reason wasn’t audited once he became president, I think releasing his tax returns is completely fine.